Hillary Clinton

====Overall themes====
[[File:Obama and Biden await updates on bin Laden.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Obama and Biden, along with members of the national security team watching a live feed|Clinton, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on Operation Neptune Spear in the White House Situation Room in 2011. Everyone in the room is watching a live feed from drones operating over the Osama bin Laden complex.]]

Throughout her time in office (and mentioned in her final speech concluding it), Clinton viewed "[[smart power]]" as the strategy for asserting U.S. leadership and values. In a world of varied threats, weakened central governments and increasingly important nongovernmental entities, smart power combined military [[hard power]] with diplomacy and U.S. [[soft power]] capacities in global economics, development aid, technology, creativity and human rights advocacy.<ref name="time-smart"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/in-farewell-speech-clinton-calls-for-smart-power-on-global-stage/ |title=In farewell speech, Clinton calls for 'smart power' on global stage |author=Madison, Lucy |work=[[CBS News]] |date=January 31, 2013}}</ref> As such, she became the first secretary of state to methodically implement the smart power approach.<ref>Ghattas 2013, pp.&nbsp;11, 334.</ref> In debates over use of military force, she was generally one of the more [[War hawk|hawkish]] voices in the administration.<ref name="landler-nytm"/><ref name="a-p-gates"/><ref name="time-crowley">{{cite magazine |url=http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/14/hillary-clintons-unapologetically-hawkish-record-faces-2016-test/ |title=Hillary Clinton's Unapologetically Hawkish Record Faces 2016 Test |author=Crowley, Michael |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=January 14, 2014}}</ref> In August 2011 she hailed the ongoing multinational military intervention in Libya and the initial U.S. response towards the Syrian Civil War as examples of smart power in action.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-us-using-smart-power-for-libya-syria/ |title=Clinton: US using 'smart power' for Libya, Syria |work=[[CBS News]] |date=August 16, 2011}}</ref>

Clinton greatly expanded the State Department's use of [[social media]], including Facebook and Twitter, to get its message out and to help empower citizens of foreign countries vis-à-vis their governments.<ref name="time-smart"/>
And in the Mideast turmoil, Clinton particularly saw an opportunity to advance one of the central themes of her tenure, the empowerment and welfare of women and girls worldwide.<ref name="nw-doctrine">{{cite news |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/06/the-hillary-doctrine.html |title=The Hillary Doctrine |author=Lemmon, Gayle Tzemach |work=[[Newsweek]] |date=March 6, 2011}}</ref> Moreover, in a formulation that became known as the "[[Hillary Doctrine]]", she viewed women's rights as critical for U.S. security interests, due to a link between the level of violence against women and gender inequality within a state, and the instability and challenge to international security of that state.<ref name="elle-2012">{{cite news |url=http://www.elle.com/life-love/society-career/at-the-pinnacle-of-hillary-clintons-career-654140 |title=At the Pinnacle of Hillary Clinton's Career |author=Combe, Rachael |magazine=[[Elle (magazine)|Elle]] |date=April 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>Hudson and Leidl 2015, pp. 3–4.</ref> In turn, there was a trend of women around the world finding more opportunities, and in some cases feeling safer, as the result of her actions and visibility.<ref>Hudson and Leidl 2015, pp. 57–60.</ref>

Clinton visited 112&nbsp;countries during her tenure, making her the most widely traveled secretary of state<ref name="nyt-amplified">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/us/politics/scare-amplifies-fears-that-clintons-work-has-taken-heavy-toll.html |title=Scare Adds to Fears That Clinton's Work Has Taken Toll |last=Landler |first=Mark |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 4, 2013}}</ref>{{efn|Clinton's 112 countries visited broke [[Madeleine Albright]]'s previous mark of 96.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.yahoo.com/frequent-flier-clinton-hits-100-country-mark-073258740.html |title=Frequent flier Hillary Clinton hits 100-country mark |author=Lee, Matthew |agency=Associated Press |publisher=[[Yahoo! News]] |date=June 28, 2012}}</ref> Clinton's sum of 956,733 air miles traveled, however, fell short of [[Condoleezza Rice]]'s record for mileage.<ref name="nyt-amplified"/> That total, 1,059,207, was bolstered late in her tenure by repeated trips to the Middle East.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/06/clinton-rice-vie-for-most-traveled-secretary-of-state/1 |title=Clinton, Rice vie for most traveled secretary of State |author=Jackson, David |work=[[USA Today]] |date=June 18, 2012}}</ref>}} ([[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] wrote that "Clinton's endurance is legendary".)<ref name="time-smart"/> The first secretary of state to visit countries like [[Togo]] and [[East Timor]], she believed that in-person visits were more important than ever in the virtual age.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/departing-secretary-state-hillary-clinton-leaves-legacy-firsts/story?id=18039755&singlePage=true |title=Departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Leaves Behind a Legacy of Firsts |author=Parnass, Sarah |author2=Hughes, Dana |work=[[ABC News]] |date=December 23, 2012}}</ref> As early as March 2011, she indicated she was not interested in serving a second term as secretary of state should Obama be [[2012 United States presidential election|re-elected in 2012]];<ref name="pol-no-2nd"/> in December 2012, following that re-election, Obama nominated Senator [[John Kerry]] to be Clinton's successor.<ref name="nyt-hosp">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/us/hillary-clinton-goes-to-hospital-after-exam-finds-a-blood-clot.html |title=Clinton's Blood Clot Is Located Near Her Brain, Doctors Say |author=Cooper, Helene |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 31, 2012}}</ref> Her last day as secretary of state was February 1, 2013.<ref name="cbs-next">{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-hillary-clinton-closing-the-door-on-politics/ |title=Is Hillary Clinton closing the door on politics? |author=Miller, Jake |work=[[CBS News]] |date=January 29, 2013}}</ref> Upon her departure, analysts commented that Clinton's tenure did not bring any signature diplomatic breakthroughs as some other secretaries of state had accomplished,<ref name="lat-legacy">{{cite news |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/28/nation/la-na-clinton-legacy-20130128 |title=Hillary Clinton's legacy at State: Splendid but not spectacular |author=Richter, Paul |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 28, 2013}}</ref><ref name="nykr-legacy">{{cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/11/long-engagements |title=Long Engagements |author=Packer, George |author-link=George Packer |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=February 11, 2013}}</ref> and highlighted her focus on goals she thought were less tangible but would have more lasting effect.<ref>Ghattas 2013, pp.&nbsp;216, 225.</ref> She has also been criticized for accepting millions in dollars in donations from foreign governments to the [[Clinton Foundation]] during her tenure as Secretary of State.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/foreign-governments-gave-millions-to-foundation-while-clinton-was-at-state-dept/2015/02/25/31937c1e-bc3f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html |title=Foreign governments gave millions to foundation while Clinton was at State Dept. |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 25, 2015 |access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref>